Page 21 of A Secret Scottish Escape

The tourist information office was a sweet little place. It had formerly been a shoemaker’s, but had been transformed with potted plants, sash windows, and paintings by local artists displayed for sale on its buttercup-yellow walls.

Faith took pride in being the ‘public face of Loch Harris’, providing glossy maps and proudly carrying her knowledge of the area as a badge of honour. However, if Loch Harris wasn’t doing as well from the tourist industry as it had done in the past, it didn’t bode well for Faith and her colleagues.

We cut down a short embankment fringed with thick trees. It was just beyond there that Loch Harris spread out like a silver mirror. It was almost as if the water had scooped out its own heart-shaped enclave from the jutting rocks.

No wonder Mac fell in love with this place as soon as I brought him here, I concluded to myself. It was so different to the flashy eateries and sharp apartment lifestyle he was used to in Edinburgh.

A melancholy thud hit me and I blinked. It was going to take time to come to terms with everything. It was the betrayal of it all. Not just that Mac had been having an affair with his ex-wife, but also that he hadn’t even disclosed his heart condition to me.

It was approaching a month now since Mac had passed away. “Still very early days,” I was often reminded.

Faith spoke, bringing me back from where I was lost in thought. “You’re not worried about facing people, are you, Layla?”

I drew to a halt by the railings. “Yes. No. I mean … I don’t know.”

Faith squeezed my arm and stood beside me, overlooking the fantastic spectacle of the first tourist viewpoint. “You’ve got absolutely nothing to feel embarrassed about, do you hear me? All this mess was Mac’s doing and now he’s gone—”

“And I’m left to deal with the aftermath.”

“But not on your own,” she emphasised. “You’ve got your dad and you’ve got me. You’ve also got Lois.” Faith studied the trees. “I know there are some right nosey buggers round here, but most of them mean well.”

I gave a small smile. That’s how Mac would often describe a few of the locals, despite my protests to the contrary.

I glanced over my shoulder and recognised two ladies from the local rambling association. They were sporting their usual walking boots and crinkly waterproof jackets, and were hovering by some trees.

They both looked over and began chattering in earnest, flicking me intrigued glances. It was obvious I was their topic of conversation.

They spun away from me to examine a branch when Faith realised they were gossiping and turned full-on Rottweiler. “Some people have got nothing better to do. Heard enough, have we?”

I buried a smile as the two ladies scurried up one of the embankments and vanished. Maybe Mac had a point about there being a very fine line between the Loch Harris community spirit and rampant nosiness.

Faith squinted a little as the evening light trickled up and over the fells, which were spread out behind the loch in a series of heather-dotted peaks. “Whenever one of us is in trouble, you know we are always there for one another.”

I swivelled my eyes to her. “I got that impression by the way you just verbally abused those two women.” I admired a brazen little robin flitting about in the branches. “Is this your clumsy way of trying to persuade me to stay?”

Faith clapped her hand to her chest. “How could you think such a thing?”

We tapped down some steps, which led us onto the path that wound its way around the Loch.

“Hi Faith. How are you?”

An attractive, sandy-haired man was ambling towards us. He was hand in hand with a cute little boy, who looked around four.

Faith’s face became smeared with pink. She let me have a shifty glance out of the corner of her eye. “Hi Greg. I’m fine, thanks. How’s you?”

My attention travelled between the two of them.

Greg nodded at her. “Oh, I’m not bad, thanks.”

He indicated to the little boy down by his side. “Sam wanted to come down and feed the ducks before bed, but we’re not having much luck finding any at the moment.”

Sam gazed up at both of us with inquisitive blue eyes. He had corn-blond hair and a wide smile. He waggled a little bag of breadcrumbs. “I think they’ve all gone to sleep.”

I grinned down at him. “I bet they’ll soon wake up again if they know you’re here, isn’t that right, Faith? Faith?”

She didn’t answer. She was too busy peering at Sam with a look of mild horror.

Greg smiled briefly at me, but I sensed he wanted to speak to Faith alone, so I edged several feet away to admire the shimmering vista of the Loch.